DANCERS WORK TO STOMP OUT CANCER

San Diego County native applies dance background to a good cause

During her teen years, Lesley Girkins put in plenty of time on the dance team at her high school before she graduated.

Now 20 years old and a junior at UCLA, Girkins helped coordinate one of the largest fundraisers of its kind, which kicked off Saturday and concludes today.

Picture hundreds of students dancing for 26 hours without sleep, and you’ll get the idea.

“I actually grew up dancing, since I was 3 years old,” Girkins said. “My mom put me in classes, and I danced at different studios.”

Girkins grew up in Oceanside and is studying medicine in Los Angeles.

She said news outlets far and wide have covered the fundraiser — which is now in its 12th year — perhaps because it keeps participants on their feet for a day and two hours.

“A marathon is 26 miles, so we figured a dance marathon should be 26 hours — and it also makes our event the longest annual dance marathon on the West Coast,” she told me. “It’s basically a really big 26-hour dance party.”

In its 11-year history, the event has yielded more than $3 million to combat childhood AIDS. This year, dancers were asked to raise $250 each, with proceeds split among three organizations, including the UCLA AIDS Institute.

“We highlight the cause and also educate the dancers about what it means to be HIV-positive, and what it means to be diagnosed as a child,” Girkins explained. “We’ll feed them, but they commit to the full 26 hours — not only dancing, but also just staying on their feet.”

In other words, no naps.

Girkins said she heard about the fundraiser when she was a senior in high school, and that it became one of her primary reasons for attending UCLA.

“Since it involved dancing, I was really interested in it, so I joined the committee,” a move that resulted in her position as public relations director for the UCLA Pediatric AIDS Coalition, billed as the largest student-run philanthropic organization on the West Coast.

“In high school, I was really involved in different charities and volunteer work,” she said. “I wanted to keep that part of my life active.”

If she wasn’t helping to coordinate the dance marathon at UCLA, you can bet that Girkins would be on the floor herself.